Just gonna stick an oar in real quick here. A couple of comments were made about not supporting Colors, and sticking to Manamon if you want a pokemon-like experience, and I think they were extremely disrespectful. And coming from Sterlock, who was, as far as I know, a beta tester for Manamon...very, very unprofessional, dude. I expect far better.
1. I have never looked at or heard anyone look at the actual data found in pokemon, but to hear that its code was very bloated and not well-maintained is both surprising and upsetting. I know there are some weird glitches involving things like critical hits and super-effective damage. I have been wary of the Braillemon project for that reason, and for many others, but not in the least unwilling to play around with it. I just figured I'd wait till it was more stable, and that never really came to pass. Now I understand why. Rachel, it's a shame you're at this point, but I, for one, would rather see you put your considerable talents to work on something of your own, something that isn't an inherited bloated mess. This is an informed, rational decision that makes both financial and strategic sense on pretty much all cylinders. Sure, it's a little upsetting for players who were hoping for this game to be fully realized, but that happens. That must not be viewed as a strike against you. You're doing the right thing.
2. Aaron Baker has never, as far as I know, inherited such a messy project and then made it shine. Aaron Baker has made his own games, all of them with notable gameplay, design or professionalism issues. To say "stick to manamon" in a case like this is something which, just as a player and a guy from the outside looking in, I find extremely insulting and demeaning. And to then say, based on this one failed project, that you're not going to support Colors? That's just plain selfish. Especially so when you compare just how much support VG Storm, which is the company you referenced indirectly by mentioning manamon, historically gives its games on release. Paladin of the Sky has some really sloppy writing and obnoxious gameplay mechanics more than two years after launch. The Gate was considered overpriced and not terribly well-balanced based on the fair majority of posters in the thread. PsychoStrike had issues almost from day 1 and got abandoned. Manamon is having similar issues, and it's being updated a bit at a time, but there are still rather large holes and problems. It feels a great deal as if Rachel's decision is damning her, yet multiple questionable decisions on behalf of another developer have not encouraged you to blackball that developer the same way you're blackballing Rachel.
And hey, that's your prerogative as a human being, just as it's mine to call hypocrisy out for what it is.
I'm not saying VG Storm is a bad company, or that Aaron Baker is a bad person, or that Rachel is perfect. None of those statements are true. What I'm saying is that the entirety of a situation should be studied before you go off half-cocked and say something that's going to possibly discourage yet another promising game developer. You can make mean jabs like that at Nintendo or the other big guns because they don't hear, and wouldn't care if they did. Do it in our little pocket of the gaming universe, and you're going to end up with a short list of your best friends' games, whether or not they're any good, and no one else who'll stand your double standards.
This all may come across a bit harsh. Maybe it even is. But I'm sick and tired of good people being bashed on really flimsy grounds, and sick of games with issues being held up as gold standards when they aren't. It gives the false impression that said games don't have problems, or that admitting defeat and re-appropriating one's time on a more worthy project is somehow the wrong choice. If nothing else, look at it like this. Rachel is now putting her time into something bigger, better, more original, more marketable to both the blind and the sighted, and no longer has a bloated, badly-coded, copyright-bound nonfinancial monkey on her back to drag her down. This is a win-win situation.
Check out my Manamon text walkthrough at the following link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z8ls3rc3f4mkb … n.txt?dl=1